Chocolate Raspberry Walnut Bars

Chocolate and raspberry are great flavor friends, so I have no doubt that these chocolate raspberry walnut bars are delicious. This recipe is a slight adaptation on Marlita’s Chocolate Raspberry Bars from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion, using Dutch process cocoa and adding 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts to the top of the bars.

The next time I make these, I might line the pan with parchment instead of greasing it; the bars on the edges were difficult to remove, so I had to cut a very thin sliver of outer edge from each edge piece in order to pop them out of the pan. The first bar out crumbled into several pieces, so it ended up as a sacrifice to the baking gods!

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup shortening

1 2/3 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder

2 3/4 cups flour

1 1/4 cups finely chopped walnuts, divided

1 cup seedless raspberry jam

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan, or line the pan with parchment paper, extending the parchment over the sides.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, shortening, sugar, salt, and baking powder until light and fluffy. Add cocoa and mix until well-combined.

Add flour and 1 cup walnuts, mixing until well-combined and thick, about 3-4 minutes. Press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of the baking pan.

Place jam in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until the jam becomes thinner and easy to spread. Pour jam over bottom crust, spreading to each edge. Crumble remaining dough over jam, then sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup walnuts.

Bake for 35 minutes, until the jam bubbles at the edges of the pan; the top layer may look slightly underdone, but that’s fine; it will set up as the bars cool.

Remove from oven and cool bars completely in the pan; cut into 24 squares.